Timeline

This phase will focus on the realities, barriers and challenges black and South Asian communities in Leeds have faced over the past 50 years, and the impact on their mental health and wellbeing in the absence of culturally relevant services.

It will also amplify the individuals, community projects and self-generated initiatives that made a difference to black and minority ethnic communities in Leeds.

Alongside capturing the narrative of The Past throughout the hybrid exhibition’s narrative and timeline, 10 documentary podcasts, reflecting the importance of oral traditions, will be produced featuring individuals and/or collectives. The podcasts will cover some of the core themes, from the presence of institutional and interpersonal racism in education, mental health stigma and the role of the church to the importance of creativity and the arts for resilience and recovery, and the development of service user empowerment.

During this stage, archive materials, such as photographs, playbills, event/conference flyers and useful documentation from past projects, will be sought. We will also be identifying key individuals, activists, artists and projects with a focus on mental health and wellbeing.

The aim is to capture and credit the learning and wisdom generated by these projects and the communities to ensure the knowledge is retained to inspire and influence future mental health initiatives.

This phase will centre current initiatives in the community, voluntary, NGO and statutory sectors that are focused on mental health inequalities and racial justice in and around Leeds.

Focus groups will be conducted with a sample of service users, people with lived experience, carers, and community organisations, in partnership with Touchstone.

This final strand will provide an opportunity to reimagine a more inclusive and equitable mental health system, guided by racial justice.

Informed by the main themes to emerge from The Past and The Present phases, this strand will also engage a cross section of NHS mental health system leaders, NGOs and politicians to respond to the main findings and themes from the project.

With a focus on developing preventative approaches, a cross section of the community, including young people, will be invited to give a creative response to what they believe will lead to a better future, without repeating the generational trauma and institutional mistakes expected to be highlighted in The Past and The Present phases.

Remembering What’s Forgotten has created a Poet-in-Residence opportunity for a black or South Asian man with lived experience, who is a practising but unpublished poet, committed to raising awareness of black and minority mental health and wellbeing. They will be commissioned to interpret the project themes and findings to produce original work that will be performed at the launch and be part of the final exhibition. This residency will be co-produced with Khadijah Ibrahiim, acclaimed poet and Artistic Director of Leeds Young Authors.

Curator Internships have been created for two Leeds-based black and minority ethnic people with lived experience and an interest in, and passion for, the arts and heritage. They will undergo an induction process and help to co-curate the final exhibition. The internships will be co-produced with Heritage Corner.

This adaptation of the Synergi Collaborative Centre’s award-winning Photovoice approach, co-produced with black and minority ethnic people with lived experience of severe mental distress, will be delivered with Touchstone for 10 carers, service users and men with lived experience. Supported by workshops, the participants will co-produce the theme to inspire them to use a disposable camera and take photographs of their daily lives – through their lens.  Once they select their final five images for exhibition, they will  produce an audio or self-written narrative to accompany their final self curated images.

Throughout the project, a digital platform will be built to complement the in-person exhibition.

The official in-person launch of the exhibition will be in September 2024 while the digital exhibition will go live in October 2024.

Remembering What’s Forgotten will be launched at an in-person exhibition and showcase, which will be co-produced with the Curator Interns and feature the commissioned poem by the Poet-in-Residence.